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Published: December 9th 2006
After a cold, cold wait in Tupiza, sitting near the train station with our 3 quid blanket wrapped around us (acquired in La Paz from Blanket Man) like some sort of homeless people, our bus (sorry, tin can on 4 wheels) arrived at 4am to take us to Villazon, The Bolivian-Argentine border. Note to other travellers when booking tickets at the bus station, try and view the buses on the forecourt first before buying the tickets to ensure that a 1950´s rust bucket piece of shit death trap of a bus doesn´t turn up to take you to your destination!
On arrival at Villazon we collected our (now covered in god knows what) bags from the bus cargo hold which had been placed next to several llama carcasses...nice! Maybe this explains why stray dogs have been following us around ever since! Traversing across the border we got our passports stamped at either side and were even greeted with a welcome smile by the Argentine immigration officer which markedly contrasted with the bitter, sarcastic Bolivian officials ´bye bye´comment to us on exiting Bolivia.
Arriving at La Quiaca (the Argentine side) bus station, Donna cunningly selected the only non-direct company (Panamericano)
Donna and Neil amongst the alcohol!
We tried to get through all the wine bottles but couldnt quite make it....to Salta and every other middle of nowhere village in between. The journey also involved a scenic route via and Argentine military checkpoint where we had to get off the bus with our big rucksacks, drag them over to the miltary men, wait for 10 mins only to be then waved through with a gruff ´gringo, go´! They only seemed to be interesed on confiscating the Bolivians coco leaves and checking they hadn´t smuggled any farm animals onto the bus! Note that Argentines certainly seem to have a lower opinion of other South American nationalities than they do of gringos. Back on the bus the Bolivian music blared out full volume, the same 4 songs repeated until we reached...no, not Salta...Jujuy. Donna had also failed to notice at La Quiaca that not only was the bus not direct, but it also involved a bus change. Almost 12 hours and 3 bus changes later we finally arrived in Salta. We struggled a little to find decent accommodation, but Donna pulled it back by finding a great little hostel for 50 pesos (8 quid) a night with cable tv right in the heart of Salta run by a very friendly bunch of
Argentines. On the check-in form Donna wrote that she was a travel writer and this no doubt contributed towards the VIP treatment we received which included the cleaner spending more time in our room than we did, 2 bars of soap a day (we are now 12 bars of soap richer!) and the owner repeatedly asking if there was anything he could do to improve his hostel! Amazing what a quick change of profession can do!
After meeting with Richard and Anika (from our Salar de Uyuni trip) we decided to go white water rafting. This was a great day out and left us pining for more than grade 3 rapids. Not so great was that no-one mentioned the millions of pesky sandflies next to the river which didn´t just bite, but took big chunks out of our legs. We only realised this when we looked down at our legs to see blood streaming from the bites. This would be the start of days of itching that were so extreme it made us want to rip our skin off!
Our 18 hour bus journey to Mendoza went smoothly thanks to 2 non-Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme
films, our super-cama (all leather) bed suites and a game of bingo provided by the Andesmar bus steward! It was fun working out the numbers in Spanish and much to the disgust of the other passengers, Richard won the high quality bottle of Andesmar wine for getting a line of numbers. O n the bus we had the whole bottom level to ourselves, there were only 6 seats, 4 were taken by us and the other by a strange Chilean bloke who had obviously never been introduced to a hairbrush!
On arrival into Mendoza we realised that it was slightly bigger than Salta and slightly more expensive. Another thing we noticed is that the local women here are, across all ages, very sophisticated, dress immaculately and as Neil repeatedly points out, have huge boobs! We aren´t sure if this is due to genetics, good posture or copious amounts of steak and wine, but Neil is determined to get to the bottom of this great mystery. Exactly how he plans to do this is also a great mystery!
A couple of more minor observations about Argentina that we want to add to our growing list. The Argentines like to
stare at shoes in shop windows. Now we aren´t just talking about window shopping, but real lustful gazing with noses pressed against glass with tongues out! We don´t know why they don´t just go into the shop and lick the shoes! Kids here also seem to have a free reign, particularly in internet cafes where even looking at dirty pics whilst listening to their favourite music online and smoking isn´t taboo!
Our last observations about South America is about the difference between the nationalities. Note that these observations are not just ours but are also shared by other travellers we have met. Peruvians seem to show very little life and soul, we never saw much emotion towards family, friends or in fact anything in particular, with very little social interaction! Bolivians had plenty of social interaction and life and soul and like to drink to the point of putting themselves into a coma. However, although the Peruvians were uniformly mildy racist towards non-South Americans, the Bolivians ranged from extremely friendly to extremely racist people who were out to milk the cash cow tourist for every boliviano they have. The next point may cause some upset, but its the truth.
Church in Salta
They do like their bright colours! Bolivians generally smell as they seem to lack any sort of personal hygiene and some would gladly take a shit in the middle of the street with no toilet paper. It is no wonder therefore that our toilet issues were worst in Bolivia. Argentines couldn´t be a bigger contract to the Peruvians and Bolivians. Argentina really is civilised in comparison, they are definitely aspiring Europeans who frankly look down on all surrounding countries with contempt. The Brazilans are posers...enuff said!
Okay, enough of the observations...the weather here is gorgeous, not humid, just a lovely 30 degrees and its great for sitting out in the leafy, green plazas or strolling the tree lined streets. Like Salta, this is one place we could happily settle for a few years (if we could find jobs and speak the lingo better!).
Getting a good meal here seemed to be more difficult than Salta until we walked into a fantastic restaurant called Caro Pepe. Basically we walked into the restaurant and asked for a menu, to which the waiter replied ´no carta, solo buffit´, which meant just take the food. When we looked around we saw several stands loaded with food. Now we
Cathedral in Salta
looks like a cake....mmmmm....cake! aren´t just talking about a bog standard buffet here, this one had all the bells and whistles, including a huge parilla (barbeque), salad bar which stretched the length of the restaurant, a chef making fresh pasta dishes with one hand whilst simultaneously cooking apple crepes with the other whilst somehow managing to serve ice cream and sing Argentine classics into a radio microphone. Not only was it an all you could eat buffet, but we got entertainment too and we were both beginning to wonder how much the bill was going to come to. This didn´t stop us getting into the spirit of things and following several scoops of strawberry Angel Delight and a bottle of Mendoza´s finest wine we sung along with the locals to classics such as Bonnie Tylers ´Total Eclipse of the Heart´ and Robbies ´Angels´ in Spanish and the music ended with a strange techno tune that the 60 year old waiter tried to sing along to! The bill arrived and we were surprised to see it was one of the best value nights out we had had, costing us 7 quid for everything. Oh my, oh my, oh my, this was a bargain, the best
value meal we have every had on our travels, made even more so by the six bowls of mint choc chip ice cream that Neil consumed before leaving!! Needless to say we returned to the same restaurant the next night...it´s tough living on a backpackers budget you know!
To illustrate just how difficult this is we went on a tour of a bodegas (wineries) in an area near Mendoza called Maipu (pronounced My poo!). Not only did we have to cycle between the bodegas but we also had to drink at each one - imagine how difficult that was! A Welsh couple (Matt and Rachel) we had met, Richard and Anika and ourselves had grabbed the local bus to Maipu and hired some dodgy mountain bikes (Richard and Anika went tandem!). We visited a great boutique bodega called El Carinae which emphasied on the quality of their cabernet sauvignon, Malbec and Syrah wines. Not only did we get to meet the French owner and try the various wines but he also made us some ham sandwiches, let us taste fruits from his orchard and so we returned the kindness by buying a bottle of the bodegas newest type of
shop and a Salta beer van
mmmm...beer! what do you think the shop sold? wine, a Malbec rose for 2 quid. We also visited a chocoleteria which in addition to its homemade choccies also sold homemade liqours which we could sample for free. Cycling to the next bodega, La Rural was therefore not the easiest thing to do as we were beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. La Rural was a much bigger bodega which produces far more wine than the first one we visited, but we learned a lot about the history of wine making in Mendoza and of course there were a few free glasses of cabernet and chardonnay thrown in for good measure. We were all a bit wobbly on the bikes at this point, Neil even more so as his bike chain snapped and so had to be pulled along by Matt. We weren´t sure which was more difficult, cycling whilst drunk or cycling whilst crying with laughter at Neil being pulled along the vineyard lined leafy roads. To the locals it must have looked like Neil was too drunk to cycle himself, so with that and the unsteady tandem cycling by Richard and Anika it must have made excellent entertainment for the locals!
We finished off
do you think he likes dogs?
no, he´s just a professional dog walker! (what we like to think as) our wine connoisseur day with a couple of litres of Andes lager and some blue coloured ciprofloxacin antibiotics for Neil as the squitz had reared its ugly head again in Maipu. There are too many jokes to list for this one, but on leaving the wine region, seeing the road sign ´You are now leaving Maipu´ pretty much summed up the end of our toilet issues.
We are sad our time in Argentina has come to an end, we love this country and wish we had more time here. But New Zealand is up next for our analysis and our ´Christmas in a Campervan´ experience. We won´t be able to do another blog entry before Christmas, so we hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year!
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Rico
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passport
I would love to see one extra pic - that of the stamp put in your passport for every border you cross. Nice read. Is it just me or is Neils smile broader in those picture wherever he stands near/around wine/wineries...Thank goodness for steadyshot!